SNPRC Staff

John L. VandeBerg

Summary

Nature versus nurture? This has been a timeless question in regard to human behavior as well as to healthy and disease states. Are we primarily a product of the genes we inherited from our parents (nature) or of the environment in which we grew up and currently live (nurture)? The answer is that genes and environment both have profound effects on the behavioral and physiological characteristics of individuals. The premise of my research is that by identifying specific genes and specific environmental factors that influence physiological characteristics, and understanding the mechanisms by which they exert their individual and collective effects, we can develop new strategies for preventing and treating diseases.

In order to pursue our research goal, we use Texas Biomed’s unique colonies of pedigreed baboons and laboratory opossums, to which we feed several different challenge diets in order to detect genetic and environmental influences on risk of cardiovascular disease. In both species, we have identified genes that affect levels of good cholesterol (LDL) or bad cholesterol (HDL) in the blood when the animals are fed a high-cholesterol diet. We also have demonstrated in baboons that the high-cholesterol diet causes senescence of the cells that line the arteries, leading to greater risk of atherosclerosis, but that different individuals are differentially susceptible to this detrimental effect of dietary cholesterol. In another project with laboratory opossums, we are investigating how gene expression patterns change in spinal cords as newborn animals lose the remarkable ability that they have at birth to repair severed spinal cords. In addition, we have recently established that opossums can serve as hosts to implanted human cancer tissue, paving the way for research on genetic mechanisms, as well as drugs and other environmental factors, that exert control over the growth and metastasis of various forms of human cancers.

The use of these pedigreed families of baboons and opossums under carefully controlled environmental conditions enables discoveries that could not be made easily, if at all, in research with human subjects. After we dissect the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to physiological processes in healthy and disease states, we will be able to translate the knowledge gained to developing new preventions and treatments for human diseases.

Education

Doctoral Degree: Ph.D.Genetics

Macquarie UniversitySyndey, Australia

Bachelor's Degree B.Sc. Hons.

La Trobe UniversityMelbourne, Australia

Awards and Honors

1989-1999 Member (Chairman, 1993-1999), Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) Council, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences
1993-1999 Member, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences
1999-2002 Member, Regulatory Burden Working Group, National Institutes of Health
2001 Elected, Honorary Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine
2001 Elected, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2001 Designated, National Associate of the National Academies

Publications

Differential expression of intestinal genes in opossums with high and low responses to dietary cholesterol.